The Coop

Wreckateer and Deadlight

Let's see... I started playing the trumpet when I was in elementary school, and did that for a couple of years. Switched to the French horn, sucked at it, and dropped that like a bad habit. I eventually got a little half-sized Yamaha keyboard from K-Mart, and began learning to play piano versions of some of my favorite video game music (Stage 1 from Ghouls 'N Ghosts, "Rise From Your Grave" from Altered Beast, "Light Song" from Sword of Vermilion, "The Grubby Dark Blue" from Thunder Force III, "Into the Deep Blue Sky" from Master of Monsters, etc.). I never took any lessons, and so never developed a particularly good level of dexterity with my hands when it comes to piano playing. But, I did my best, learning everything by ear and not being able to read a single note on sheet music. It took some time, but I also eventually began writing my own compositions based off of stories I was writing at the time, and recording them (I still have the cassette tapes... not that you young'uns know what they are). From there, I got to tinker with the music program on a friend's Amiga, and had some fun with that. But that only lasted about a year or so, and it would be a while before I touched another music program. Years later, in 2001, I bought a program called Music Creator 2002, and began fooling around with it. It was a lot like the Amiga music program in ways, so it had a familiar, intuitive nature to it. Around the end of that same year, I came across VGMix 1, and learned about remixes (which I'd kind of been doing by playing piano versions of game songs). And around April of 2002, I sat down with that copy of Music Creator 2002, and my old Windows ME Compaq PC, I gave making more in-depth remixes a try... with varying degrees of success as the result. These days, I still write original music using a copy of Music Creator 5, and they're based off of the novels I'm working on. I also continue to do remixes from time to time as well... again, with varying degrees of success. I've yet to learn how to read sheet music, so everything continues to be remixed/composed solely by ear. But hopefully I've managed to produce some music that people on VGMix and OCR enjoyed.

To keep with OCR tradition, the header about the album status should say "Update: Coming Soon(ish)".

I believe that was Invasion of the Neptune Men.

http://the-coop.deviantart.com/gallery/ (wings, armor, BG and sword done by me) What I currently have up on DA. Plenty of sprite editing, and original backgrounds as well. I've done a lot more work than that, but my old site's basically gone, and I'm still trying to find the time to reupload everything.

I can't comment on MW1, as I've never played it. But MW2 is quite good (the graphics are dated obviously, but the gameplay and such are still great), MW3 is OK (better graphics then the previous game, but gameplay seems less fun, and it's missing that spark that MW2 had), and MW4 is quite good (better graphics still, and the enjoyable gameplay is back). MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries is free, not the original MW4, or the "Black Knight" expansion.

Wait... the MechWarrior reboot became MechWarrior Online? So it's just another MMO with no single player aspect?

Half - Life

Isn't this a bit like setting yourself on fire to save burn victims? You know, kinda... the wrong way to go about it?

The Amazing Spider Man

Do you need to donate to OCR to get the remixes hosted here? No, you don't. They're free day in, day out. The donations in the past (I believe April is the donation month for the last few years) are to the site, and the site alone. You got nothing for donating, outside of the knowledge that you helped OCR pay for its running costs; no rewards, no gifts, nothing. This fundraiser is vastly different, because the physical album is gotten for a $50 donation to the kickstarter. Sure, the physical album would have been given out for free at various functions that OCR attended later on, but it still would have been printed using the money from the fund drive. And THAT is the point of contention in the eyes of some. Not the MP3s that will eventually be hosted on the site, the physical album, and how it was paid for. That's where licensing comes in to cover the butts of all those involved with the physical album's release. - When I've been talking about the fundraiser/FFVI/licensing issue, I've been talking about the physical album. Not the MP3s and other digital media that would have been put on the OCR website, the physical album that was going to be produced using money from the kickstarter. Nothing more. If you thought otherwise, then my apologies for not making that clearer. - To the best of my knowledge, the previous albums were never sold, nor were they a selling point for a fundraiser. They only got released on the website (and mirroring sites/torrents), free for everyone to download, and that was that. As such, no licensing was required because no money was required to get an item/download. - Square-Enix, and indeed, any IP holder whose music has been remixed, would be perfectly within their rights to request that OCR no longer host music based on their respective IPs. So if Konami decided that they didn't want Castlevania remixes on here anymore, they could draw up a C&D or what have you, and tell djp to remove the music in question, or face legal consequences. Maybe they'd win in court, maybe djp would win. But it's Konami's IP being used as a source material, and they can defend it however they wish (regardless of how frivolous it comes across). OCR continues to host free remixes through the good graces of IP holders. In fact, those who make remixes in general are able to put them out there for free for the same reason. Not because they're untouchable by law, but because the companies (for the moment) don't really have an issue with it as long as it's free. But when money starts being handed over to gain a physical item filled with remixes, or to download an MP3 remix, then things get hairier, and the chances of lawyers getting involved goes up. That's when it gets easier for a company to see it as people making money off of their IP, without their permission. Then you potentially get projects being shut down, and small children weeping openly in the streets as dismay fills their hearts.

Money changing hands, changes everything. With Square-Enix, they've shown they're more than willing to shut down a free project if they feel one of their IPs is threatened, and the staff at OCR was sporting a FFVI album as a reward for donating to the kickstarter fund. That got the attention of someone, and the end result was Square-Enix hitting the proverbial pause button on the kickstarter. If you require money to be exchanged for something, you're likely to be seen as having sold that something. There was monetary gain made, regardless of why (charity, fund drive, etc.). At that point, a company is far more likely to intervene on behalf of their IP, than if the something in question was being freely handed out. That's why when money's involved, many will approach the owner of the IP and ask to have permission, in writing, to do what they had in mind. "Weird Al" does it all the time, even though he's not required to thanks to the rules behind parody works. He does it to cover his ass legally, and out of respect for the original artists. And when it comes to remixes and money changing hands, especially when the source of the project is a relatively well known one (like OCR), it's a good practice to adhere to. zircon kindly explained the hows and whys when it comes to getting a licensing agreement with Square-Enix for the kickstarter. Yes, some feel that if they didn't have one, the album shouldn't have been included, due to the way Square-Enix has behaved in the past with IP protection; they feel it was a mistake to go ahead with the album reward without such an agreement in place. But those of us who feel that way, and have made remixes that are freely available here or elsewhere, aren't being hypocritical in the least. Why? Because the site hosting remixes for free, and someone making a remix and putting it up for people to listen to for free, is not the same as the site/person handing out a remix/album in exchange for money (be it selling outright, or as a gift for donating). The former will likely be overlooked. The latter, stands a much greater chance of ending with a C&D order from the IP owner.

Ah, I see. However, that beg's one last question; if you didn't have the music done, and thus had no way to try and get a licensing agreement, why put it in as a major draw for the kickstarter in the first place? I know it was a great reward, but didn't it feel like putting a bull's eye on the fund raiser, given Squenix's past actions? ... OK, so there are technically two questions there.

How come you guys didn't set a limit on how many copies of the album were going to be produced? You know, make it "first come, first served." Sure, it would have potentially limited the number of people willing to give $50 or more, but then you would have had the number needed to approach Square-Enix in terms of copies being potentially given out, and avoided everything that's happening now. Plus, if the funds kept coming in readily (after the albums had all been claimed), you could have tried to renegotiate behind the scenes with Squenix about increasing the album count. Or perhaps negotiated a set number of albums per $1000 raised from the beginning? I know all this is after the fact, and some of what I've said likely comes off as, "No shit, Captain Obvious" commentary. But I guess I'm just surprised that after how thorough everyone on the site staff was about getting a nice and official contract agreement drawn up between OCR and the hosted remixers, that you guys went forward with the album reward idea with no agreement between OCR and Square-Enix.

Looks like my speculative hunch in the other thread a week ago was quite correct. Someone did indeed catch wind of it, and didn't like it. Not surprising at all, though, especially considering the amount of cash that was raised, and whose IP was being used (a company who's somewhat notorious for shutting down fan projects). But to be completely honest, who didn't see this coming? People donate $50 and get a produced CD of FFVI remixes, without any kind of licensing deal with Square-Enix. Sure, it wasn't specifically selling the CD outright, but it was a big selling point for donating, and it was still money changing hands for those donating $50 or more. And for companies in general who look out for their IPs to the level Squenix has over the years, that's close enough to warrant taking action. So while the idea was a great one, I can't help but think someone dropped the legal ball on that one during the planning stages. This really should have been seen coming, even if the donation drive hadn't garnered so much cash. Now the question is, will a deal be made to allow this to keep going, or will the kickstarter have to be... well, rekickstarted (sans remixes of course)?

Inversion.

As a final recommendation before this whole thing ends, grab Bastion if you can. It's a stylish little action RPG with an interesting narrative element that weaves through the game, with great graphics, nice audio, solid controls and a pretty decent story. You'll definitely get your $4 worth.

If anyone's interested in Legend of Grimrock, get it soon. For how many times it came up in this sale, I doubt it'll see another sale for a good while. It's worth the $6, and is a good example of bringing oldschool dungeon crawling into the more visually advanced world of modern gaming. Long enough to get your money's worth, but not drawn out or tedious. Plus, if it runs on my old P4 3.00Ghz, 7800 GS PC, you've got a good shot at running it if your specs aren't quite up to what's listed in the requirements section.